As a child, Rose Franklin made an astonishing discovery: a giant metallic hand, buried deep within the earth. As an adult, she’s dedicated her brilliant scientific career to solving the mystery that began that fateful day: Why was a titanic robot of unknown origin buried in pieces around the world? Years of investigation have produced intriguing answers—and even more perplexing questions. But the truth is closer than ever before when a second robot, more massive than the first, materializes and lashes out with deadly force.
Now humankind faces a nightmare invasion scenario made real, as more colossal machines touch down across the globe. But Rose and her team at the Earth Defense Corps refuse to surrender. They can turn the tide if they can unlock the last secrets of an advanced alien technology. The greatest weapon humanity wields is knowledge in a do-or-die battle to inherit the Earth . . . and maybe even the stars.

I listened to Sleeping Giants last year and absolutely fell in love with not only the audiobook but also the story.

Waking Gods picks back up a few years after the events at the end of Sleeping Giants. Now it seems that Themis isn’t the only robot out there as another Giant robot appears on Earth, than another, than another. Soon Kara, Dr Rose, Vincent and their mysterious friend are out there again trying to figure out why the robots are showing up and are they a danger to Earth.

This was a thrilling ride. I love having all the voice actors and the characters right back telling the story. They do such a great job with the book it is both exciting and an interesting listen. There were a few parts that I found myself reading the actual book for (mostly the scientific parts), but overall the audio is my favorite part.

The story itself is exciting as a reader, I was eager to find out what happens to the characters and what do the giant robots want from the Earth. This definitely had some science fiction elements to it, but it was easy enough to get into the story. Sylvain Neuvel really knows how to bring the characters and their personalities to life through simple character dialog and files. This is not written as a traditional book which I think makes it even more exciting.

I did have some gripes about it

First, I didn’t like the voice of Eva. I get that she is suppose to be 10 year old girl, but she was super whiny and listening to it was a bit grating.

The second gripe might be a spoiler so please read at your own discretion below

View Spoiler »Two main characters from book one die in this book and their deaths in the matter that happened just felt a bit odd and off for me. I am still not sure how to feel about that, it felt like it was there for a shock factor, but I felt as to who these characters are they deserved a better ending. « Hide Spoiler

That’s all. I am enjoying this series, it’s really well done and I am looking forward to digging into book three and seeing how it wraps up. That ending definitely threw me in for a loop.

I just listened to this last week as a re-read. I did not like the voice of Eva at all. I also wish that they could have used the same voice for Kara. I think we may see some more things regarding your spoiler – think Rose – but that is just a thought and I have nothing to back that up. I have an arc of the next book and cannot wait to get started on it. Great review!

Sounds like you had a fantastic time with this second instalment and I’m glad! I don’t read many science fiction books, but there’s something about this one that I find intriguing . . . Perhaps I should go check Sleeping Giants 😉

I remember when I saw the first book on NetGalley and for some reason the blurb and cover gave me an old-fashion 70s “New Wave” feeling so I didn’t request it and then I started to see so many good reviews around! I’ll have to put it back on my TBR!

I’m not a fan of science fiction so I’m not sure if this series will work for me, but I am having a good feeling about the Sleeping Giants so I guess I’ll try the first book and see what happens. Awesome review Lily 🙂

This sounds like a really great follow-up to the first book. Too bad about the narration issue, though. That’s the downside with audiobooks – a narrator can definitely make or break the overall listening experience.